MarySarah Stokman studied philosophy at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and worked as a photographer after graduation. She also worked at a shop and found she loved selling. She did photography and visual merchandising for the shop’s owner.
“I really fell in love with just the concept of telling a story of a ‘maker’ and of a handmade good,” said Stokman, a parishioner of St. Mark in St. Paul. “I’m really passionate about the stories that their goods hold, and communicating that,” she said.
Little by little, she gained industry knowledge and decided to try her hand at her own shop. Today, Stokman owns The Olive Branch, a home goods shop in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul, next door to the Groveland Tap, at Fairview and St. Clair.
Stokman recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to describe her journey to shop owner and the merchandise she sells at her St. Paul store. The store sells a wide assortment of home goods, she said, from ceramics to hand-blown glass pitchers, beeswax candles, small batch and locally made food products like olive oils and salts, candles, plants, tablecloths, original artwork and more.
Most items are handmade, with many made locally, Stokman said. The principle is “we seek to elevate the work of daily life and to illuminate the beauty found in the ordinary,” she said. “There’s something special that I think happens with something that’s handcrafted and made by the work of another that really allows that kind of beauty in the everyday to come through more, and to connect us to each other,” she said.
The shop attracts people from all walks of life, Stokman said. “My hope is that just in creating a space of beauty and of peace, that that does give someone the freedom to maybe enter into conversation or to linger, and that really becomes a place of connection,” she said.
To learn more about Stokman’s shop, visit the website at olivebranchshop.co or follow it on social media: @olivebranch_shop. To learn more about Stokman’s journey and merchandise, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. Sept. 22 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. Sept. 23 and 2 p.m. Sept. 24.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who discusses veneration of the saints; and Father Daniel Griffith, rector of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, and Caitlin Morneau, a parishioner of St. Mark in St. Paul and director of restorative justice for the Catholic Mobilizing Network, who describe the intersection between restorative justice and the Catholic Church.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
